It is often necessary, especially in automotive engineering, to connect or clamp at least two components composed of a flat material, i.e. of sheet steel, for example car body parts, to each other at a predefined distance from each other.
A clamping and fastening device is known for this, which is composed of a clamping nut, which bears against the outside of a first component, a clamping bolt, which bears against the outside of a second component and engages in the clamping nut, and an axially adjustable spacer, which is formed from a threaded bushing, which is supported on the inner face of the first component, and a drum nut, an outer thread of which engages in the inner thread of the threaded bushing and which bears against the inner face of the second component. The drum nut and the threaded bushing have a left-handed thread. The drum nut is connected via a driver bushing to the clamping bolt in order to transmit a limited torque, so that when the clamping bolt is rotated, the conjoint rotation of the drum nut first sets the distance between the components and then, once a required distance has been reached, further increase in the distance between said components and conjoint rotation of the drum nut with the clamping bolt are prevented, and the components are clamped together via the clamping bolt, which increasingly engages in the clamping nut. The disadvantage of the known clamping and fastening device is however that the threaded bushing must be fixed to the first component by hook-like sections that engage in the first component, and moreover the clamping nut must be placed as an individual part onto the clamping bolt that passes through the openings in the components and in the spacer, and must be secured against conjoint rotation with the clamping bolt with a suitable tool during clamping.